MASTER OF IMPORTS

Yesterday’s tip covered the basics of importing from one Set to another but there’s a bit more to know if you really want to take full advantage of Live’s import functionality.

In addition to tracks, you can also import individual clips from the tracks within a Set, as long as those clips are contained within the Session view. Arrangement view clips are an all-or-nothing deal.

Entire Sets can be imported. Just drag a Set out of the browser and drop it into the current Set.

Real import mastery comes from understanding that there are different behaviors depending on where you drop the imported track.

1) When dragging tracks, sets or clips you have the option of dropping them into existing tracks, or having Live create new tracks. To create a new track, make sure you drop the object in question at the far edge of your existing tracks. You can also do the drop in between tracks: a dark black line will appear to show you where the new track(s) will be created.

2) When creating new tracks with importing, you’ll get not only all of the track’s clips but all of it’s devices and automation as well.

3) When dropping into existing tracks, you’ll only get devices and automation if the track you’re dropping into contains no devices whatsoever. Otherwise, you get clips only.

4) When dropping into existing tracks, you’ll only get Session view clips. The Arrangement clips will be left out. However, if the destination track contains no devices, you’ll still get all of the device automation in the Arrangement view, even though the tracks will contain no clips.